Frequently Asked Questions

RIFM mana­ges a list of ​‘non-sup­por­ted’ mate­rials as part of this pro­gram. It is impor­tant to note that desig­na­tion as a non-sup­por­ted mate­rial does not mean that the mate­rial is unsa­fe. Ins­tead, it means that RIFM has not recei­ved a sam­ple or con­cen­tra­tion data and so can­not con­duct a safety assess­ment. In addi­tion, many non-sup­por­ted mate­rials may no lon­ger be in use.

Once RIFM has deter­mi­ned a mate­rial to be on the non-sup­por­ted list, RIFM scien­tists take steps to gather data from the pri­mary user or the industry.

Should the infor­ma­tion not be pro­vi­ded, the mate­rial is remo­ved from the safety assess­ment pro­gram and has its RIFM iden­tity num­ber remo­ved. IFRA is infor­med and may or may not imple­ment risk mana­ge­ment measures.

In all cases, com­pa­nies must demons­tra­te the safety of the pro­ducts they pla­ce on the mar­ket. A com­pany may show the material’s safety via its own safety assessment.

Howe­ver, as the repre­sen­ta­ti­ve body of the glo­bal fra­gran­ce industry, IFRA encou­ra­ges mem­bers to have as many mate­rials as pos­si­ble asses­sed in the RIFM pro­gram to rein­for­ce the risk assess­ment and mana­ge­ment process.

IFRA and RIFM defi­ne a fun­ctio­nal ingre­dient as ​“any basic subs­tan­ce neces­sary for a fra­gran­ce ingre­dient or compound’s fun­ctio­na­lity or sta­bi­lity.” Fun­ctio­nal ingre­dients inclu­de, but are not limi­ted to, pig­ments, anti­oxi­dants, sol­vents, plas­ti­ci­zers, sur­fac­tants, UV absor­bers, and buf­fe­ring agents.

As tho­se mate­rials have a much broa­der use outsi­de the fra­gran­ce and fla­vor indus­tries and many other indus­tries review them, they are not eva­lua­ted in the RIFM Safety Assess­ment Pro­gram and are clas­si­fied as fun­ctio­nal ingre­dients. RIFM the­re­fo­re remo­ves the material’s iden­tity number.

Yes, this is gene­rally accep­ta­ble under the IFRA Stan­dards. The IFRA approach allows for the pre­sen­ce of tra­ce levels of prohi­bi­ted subs­tan­ces, as outli­ned in the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the Stan­dards and further cla­ri­fied in Infor­ma­tion Let­ter 1121. Accep­ta­bi­lity depends on the con­cen­tra­tion of the raw mate­rial used and the final level of the impu­ri­ties in the finished pro­duct. It is impor­tant to ensu­re that the­se levels remain within the thresholds defi­ned by IFRA.

The IFRA Stan­dards do not pres­cri­be a uni­ver­sal threshold for what cons­ti­tu­tes a ​“subs­tan­tial amount” for all types of essen­tial oils as it is dif­fi­cult to esta­blish it. It does not only depends on the amount of lina­lool or limo­ne­ne in the oil, but also on its gene­ral sus­cep­ti­bi­lity to oxi­di­ze, which itself depends on various factors.

The­re­fo­re com­pa­nies should unders­tand their port­fo­lio and, based on infor­ma­tion from their sup­pliers or on own mea­su­re­ment of pero­xi­de values, they should be in the best posi­tion to unders­tand which essen­tial oils need care­ful qua­lity control.

When prepa­ring a IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity yo the IFRA Stan­dards for a Natu­ral Com­plex Subs­tan­ce (NCS) (e.g.: essen­tial oils) cove­red by an IFRA Stan­dard—such as Ylang Ylang — it is essen­tial that the sup­plier con­si­ders two sets of restrictions:

1. The res­tric­tions spe­ci­fied in the IFRA Stan­dard for the NCS itself
2. The res­tric­tions based on indi­vi­dual cons­ti­tuents within the NCS

The most strin­gent of the­se two will deter­mi­ne the maxi­mum allo­wa­ble use levels indi­ca­ted in the cer­ti­fi­cate.

Depen­ding on the spe­ci­fic qua­lity of the mate­rial offe­red, both of the follo­wing sce­na­rios are acceptable:

Sce­na­rio 1: If the maxi­mum use levels are gover­ned enti­rely by the IFRA Stan­dard for the NCS, the Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity for the sup­plie­r’s raw mate­rial (e.g. Ylang Ylang) will align with the corres­pon­ding published IFRA Stan­dard for that mate­rial (e.g: Ylang Ylang).

Sce­na­rio 2: If the maxi­mum use levels are deter­mi­ned by a com­bi­na­tion of the IFRA Stan­dard for the NCS in some pro­duct cate­go­ries and by cons­ti­tuent-based limits in others, the Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity may dif­fer from the IFRA Stan­dard for that fra­gran­ce mate­rial (e.g. Ylang Ylang).

Exam­ple: If analy­ti­cal data reveals that a spe­ci­fic qua­lity of Ylang Ylang con­tains iso­euge­nol levels excee­ding the indi­ca­ti­ve values refe­ren­ced in ​‘Annex I on con­tri­bu­tions from other sour­ces’, the sup­plier must fac­tor this into the assess­ment. This could lead to redu­ced maxi­mum use levels for cer­tain IFRA Stan­dard cate­go­ries, such as 11A and 11B, com­pa­red to tho­se lis­ted in the IFRA Standard.

Whi­le the IFRA gui­de­li­nes and the offi­cial tem­pla­te for the Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to the IFRA Stan­dards are pro­vi­ded in English, the­re is no spe­ci­fic requi­re­ment regar­ding the lan­gua­ge in which the cer­ti­fi­ca­te must be issued.

The cer­ti­fi­ca­te is a volun­tary docu­ment crea­ted only by manu­fac­tu­rers or sup­pliers of fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res or ingre­dients. It ser­ves as a decla­ra­tion of com­plian­ce with the IFRA Stan­dards for a spe­ci­fic inten­ded use and is based on a trust-based rela­tionship bet­ween the manu­fac­tu­rer and their cus­to­mer. The­re­fo­re, if a cus­to­mer is based in a non-English spea­king country, the sup­plier may issue the cer­ti­fi­ca­te in English or in the local lan­gua­ge of your market.

Further gui­dan­ce is avai­la­ble in the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards. A down­loa­da­ble tem­pla­te for the Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity can be acces­sed on the same webopage.

Plea­se note that the Certi­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity con­firms align­ment with the IFRA Stan­dards but does not repla­ce a full safety assess­ment.

Addi­tio­nally, com­plian­ce with the IFRA Stan­dards does not exempt the manufacturer/​supplier from adhe­ring to appli­ca­ble natio­nal, regio­nal, or local regu­la­tions in the country he operates.

No, IFRA does not issue IFRA Stan­dards for fun­ctio­nal fra­gran­ce mate­rials (e.g., sol­vents like DPG). As a result, it is not pos­si­ble to pro­vi­de an IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity for such fun­ctio­nal materials.

Fra­gran­ce manu­fac­tu­rers are requi­red to comply with the regu­la­tions in for­ce within the coun­tries whe­re they ope­ra­te and mar­ket their products.

In addi­tion to legal requi­re­ments, com­pa­nies may also choo­se to follow the IFRA Stan­dards, which form a volun­tary, glo­bally accep­ted and recog­ni­zed risk mana­ge­ment sys­tem for the safe use of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients and are part of the IFRA Code of Practice.

In some ins­tan­ces, safety assess­ments for a fra­gran­ce mate­rial may dif­fer bet­ween natio­nal regu­la­tions and IFRA Stan­dards. For exam­ple, Butylphenyl Methyl­pro­pio­nal (BMH­CA), also known com­mer­cially as Lilial, has been ban­ned in cos­me­tic pro­ducts (both exis­ting and new) in the Euro­pean Union as of March 2022. t is impor­tant to note that this res­tric­tion applies exclu­si­vely within the EU.

The use of BMH­CA remains per­mit­ted in mar­kets outsi­de the EU, sub­ject to local regulations.

With res­pect to the IFRA Stan­dards, the Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rials (RIFM) has con­duc­ted a com­prehen­si­ve aggre­ga­te expo­su­re risk assess­ment. This assess­ment sup­ports the con­ti­nued safe use of p‑BMHCA in both cos­me­tic and non-cos­me­tic appli­ca­tions at the con­cen­tra­tions currently in use.

In gene­ral, the IFRA Stan­dards apply to fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res used in non-food con­su­mer pro­ducts. Howe­ver, depen­ding on the appli­ca­ble regu­la­tory fra­me­work, cer­tain pro­ducts — such as tho­se used in oral care — may fall under either fra­gran­ce or fla­vor applications.

For the pur­po­ses of the IFRA Code of Prac­ti­ce, we refer to both sin­gle subs­tan­ces and mix­tu­res as fra­gran­ce ingre­dients and fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res (e.g.: per­fu­mes), even in cases whe­re the­se subs­tan­ces meet fla­vor-rela­ted cri­te­ria and may be pro­du­ced as fla­vor mix­tu­res. As such, any oral care pro­duct that inclu­des a fra­gran­ce must comply with the IFRA Stan­dards and the broa­der IFRA Code of Practice.

Oral care pro­ducts currently recog­ni­zed in this cate­gory inclu­de tooth­pas­te and mouth­wa­sh. Other exam­ples inclu­de tooth pow­ders, mouth­wa­sh tablets, and oral strips. With the intro­duc­tion of aggre­ga­te expo­su­re con­si­de­ra­tions in the 49^th Amend­ment to the IFRA Stan­dards, simul­ta­neo­us use of mul­ti­ple pro­ducts from the same cate­gory (e.g., tooth­pas­te and mouth­wa­sh) is now asses­sed. Howe­ver, this does not extend to their use as fla­vor ingre­dients in food products.

Expo­su­re limits for the­se oral care items are deri­ved from the Quan­ti­ta­ti­ve Risk Assess­ment (QRA) pro­cess and are spe­ci­fi­cally desig­ned to miti­ga­te the risk of peri-oral skin sensitization.

In addi­tion to oral care, other pro­duct types — such as lip care items (e.g., lips­ticks, balms) and cer­tain toys — may also invol­ve inci­den­tal oral expo­su­re to fra­gran­ce ingre­dients. In such cases, all mate­rials used in the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re must comply not only with IFRA Stan­dards but also with fla­vor ingre­dient requi­re­ments as defi­ned by the IOFI Code of Prac­ti­ce. To be appro­ved for such use, mate­rials must meet at least one of the follo­wing criteria:

• Recog­ni­zed by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Com­mit­tee on Food Addi­ti­ves (JEC­FA) as pre­sen­ting no safety con­cern at current levels of intake;

• Eva­lua­ted and dee­med safe under inten­ded con­di­tions of use by autho­ri­ta­ti­ve bodies such as the Euro­pean Food Safety Autho­rity (EFSA) or the Japa­ne­se Food Safety Autho­rity (FSC), using metho­do­lo­gies alig­ned with JECFA;

• Clas­si­fied as Gene­rally Recog­ni­zed As Safe (GRAS) or appro­ved as food addi­ti­ves by the U.S. Food and Drug Admi­nis­tra­tion (FDA), inclu­ding GRAS deter­mi­na­tions made by the Fla­vor and Extract Manu­fac­tu­rers Asso­cia­tion of the Uni­ted Sta­tes (FEMA);

• Com­pliant with appli­ca­ble natio­nal or regio­nal regu­la­tions gover­ning fla­vo­ring use in locally sold con­su­mer products.

Mate­rials that do not meet any of the­se cri­te­ria are not per­mit­ted in pro­ducts whe­re inci­den­tal oral inges­tion may occur.

Plea­se note that the­se pro­ducts — such as oral care items and lip care cos­me­tics — are not inten­ded for inges­tion, although acci­den­tal inges­tion may occur. For any ques­tions regar­ding the inter­pre­ta­tion of IOFI gui­de­li­nes, plea­se con­tact IOFI directly.

Further details on IFRA Stan­dards and pro­duct cate­go­ries can be found in the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards.

Terms such as ​“colog­ne,” ​“eau de toi­let­te,” and ​“eau de par­fum” are gene­ral des­crip­tors com­monly found on fra­gran­ce pro­duct labels. The­se terms are not strictly defi­ned by inter­na­tio­nal stan­dards and can vary bet­ween pres­ti­ge and mass-mar­ket seg­ments, as well as across dif­fe­rent regions.

Although the­re is no uni­ver­sally fixed defi­ni­tion based on con­cen­tra­tion levels, typi­cal usa­ge ran­ges for etha­nol-based fra­gran­ce pro­ducts are as follows:

• Splash and Aftersha­ve: 1 – 3% fra­gran­ce concentration

• Eau de Colog­ne (EdC): 3 – 8% (typi­cally around 5%)

• Eau de Toi­let­te (EdT): 5 – 15% (typi­cally around 10%)

• Eau de Par­fum (EdP), Par­fum de Toi­let­te (PdT): 10 – 20% (typi­cally around 15%)

• Per­fu­me Extract (Extra­it): 15 – 40% (typi­cally around 20%)

The­se clas­si­fi­ca­tions are based on com­mon industry prac­ti­ces rather than strict regu­la­tory definitions.

Gui­dan­ce on usa­ge levels can be found in the IFRA Stan­dards—the glo­bal fra­gran­ce industry’s volun­tary self-regu­la­tory fra­me­work. Deve­lo­ped by the Inter­na­tio­nal Fra­gran­ce Asso­cia­tion (IFRA), the­se stan­dards are groun­ded in scien­ti­fic risk assess­ments con­duc­ted by an inde­pen­dent Expert Panel for Fra­gran­ce Safety.

The IFRA Stan­dards esta­blish cri­te­ria for the safe use of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients, inclu­ding bans, res­tric­tions, or spe­ci­fic usa­ge con­di­tions, regard­less of whether the ingre­dients are directly or indi­rectly inclu­ded in the final pro­duct. Com­plian­ce with the IFRA Code of Prac­ti­ce and Stan­dards is man­da­tory for IFRA mem­bers, who repre­sent appro­xi­ma­tely 80% of the glo­bal fra­gran­ce pro­duc­tion by volume.

End con­su­mer pro­ducts which are typi­cally clas­si­fied as medi­cal devi­ces (e.g. inti­ma­te gels, scen­ted pre­ser­va­ti­ves) fall outsi­de the sco­pe of RIFM’s safety assess­ments and, con­se­quently, outsi­de the appli­ca­tion of the IFRA Standards.

In gene­ral terms, neither IFRA nor RIFM is in a posi­tion to pro­vi­de defi­ni­ti­ve advi­ce regar­ding pro­duct cate­go­ri­za­tion. Howe­ver, IFRA/RIFM can sha­re their pers­pec­ti­ve based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded case-by case and in accor­dan­ce with the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Standards.

In all cases the final res­pon­si­bi­lity for pro­duct clas­si­fi­ca­tion and com­plian­ce remains with the manu­fac­tu­rer.

The IFRA Stan­dards usa­ge limit for a fra­gran­ce for­mu­la­tion is based on the most res­tric­ti­ve ingre­dient across the rele­vant pro­duct cate­go­ries. This means that the ove­rall limit corres­ponds to the lowest allo­wed con­cen­tra­tion of any indi­vi­dual raw mate­rial in the for­mu­la­tion, ensu­ring the final pro­duct com­plies with the highest safety standard.

The IFRA Stan­dards sets rules for the use a ran­ge of fra­gran­ce mate­rials based on scien­ti­fic assess­ment. The­se rules include:

Prohi­bi­tion: a ban on the use of a material

Res­tric­tion: rules on the maxi­mum quan­tity to be used and/​or the pro­ducts in which cer­tain mate­rials can be use

Spe­ci­fi­ca­tion: other con­di­tions on the type of mate­rial (such as purity criteria).

In all cases the final res­pon­si­bi­lity for the safe use of any fra­gran­ce mate­rial put on the mar­ket rests with the com­pany supplying the material.

The IFRA Stan­dards set the maxi­mum dose of a fra­gran­ce ingre­dient in finished con­su­mer goods. They are pri­ma­rily a tool for use by IFRA mem­bers in their daily work.

The typi­cal user is a per­fu­mer or someo­ne else with a tech­ni­cal, regu­la­tory or scien­ti­fic back­ground – and so the for­mat and lan­gua­ge of the Stan­dards are writ­ten with this audien­ce in mind.

Howe­ver, we belie­ve that it is an impor­tant part of our self-regu­la­tory role to be trans­pa­rent about the Stan­dards we apply – which is why all of the Stan­dards are avai­la­ble on this website.

The inde­pen­dent Expert Panel for Fra­gran­ce Safety over­sees the safety assess­ment pro­cess to ensu­re that it is scien­ti­fi­cally sound.

The Expert Panel is com­pri­sed of renow­ned inde­pen­dent experts from various scien­ti­fic fields, inclu­ding der­ma­to­logy, toxi­co­logy, patho­logy and envi­ron­men­tal science.

The Expert Panel eva­lua­tes data on a fra­gran­ce mate­rial and checks whether that data sup­ports current use levels.

Safety is the ove­rri­ding con­si­de­ra­tion: the Expert Panel seeks to ensu­re that fra­gran­ce mate­rials sub­mit­ted for review are sub­ject to appro­pria­te safety assessments.

Fra­gran­ce ingre­dient safety assess­ments are reports writ­ten by RIFM scien­tists, inclu­ding che­mists and toxi­co­lo­gists. Each fra­gran­ce ingre­dient sub­ject to a safety assess­ment is eva­lua­ted by RIFM scien­tists and tes­ted for human health and envi­ron­men­tal safety.

The safety assess­ments are published in a peer-revie­wed jour­nal and are avai­la­ble for no char­ge on the Fra­gran­ce Mate­rial Safety Resour­ce web­si­te.

In cases whe­re the safety assess­ment does not sup­port current use, the Expert Panel will con­clu­de that risk mana­ge­ment is neces­sary, and IFRA issues a Stan­dard based on this risk mana­ge­ment con­clu­sion either res­tric­ting, ban­ning or set­ting spe­ci­fi­ca­tions for a mate­rial so that it can be used safely.

Impor­tantly, the final deci­sion on the con­tent of the safety assess­ment upon which a Stan­dard is based, as well as the deter­mi­na­tion whether the Stan­dard addres­ses the risk mana­ge­ment set forth in the safety assess­ment, lie solely in the hands of the Expert Panel, not IFRA or RIFM – adding an addi­tio­nal layer of independence.

The IFRA Stan­dards-set­ting pro­cess prin­ci­pally invol­ves IFRA, the Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rials (RIFM) and the inde­pen­dent Expert Panel on Fra­gran­ce Safety.

We also, through a con­sul­ta­tion pha­se, invol­ve our Mem­bers and sta­kehol­ders in the process.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: IFRA sends infor­ma­tion to RIFM

IFRA sends RIFM infor­ma­tion about a fra­gran­ce mate­rial, inclu­ding expo­su­re situa­tion (usa­ge con­cen­tra­tion, variety of use, volu­me of use); che­mi­cal com­po­si­tion; olfac­tory pro­fi­le; olfac­tory potential.

Step 2: RIFM pre­pa­res a dossier

RIFM pre­pa­res a com­prehen­si­ve dos­sier on the mate­rial, inclu­ding all avai­la­ble safety data. If neces­sary, RIFM initia­tes and orga­ni­zes safety stu­dies to fill gaps in know­led­ge about the material.

Step 3: Expert Panel evaluates

The inde­pen­dent Expert Panel eva­lua­tes the data. It checks whether the data sup­ports current use levels in such a way that the­re is no risk to con­su­mers. If the safety assess­ment does not sup­port current use, the Panel ins­tructs IFRA to issue a Standard.

Step 4: IFRA pre­pa­res a Standard

IFRA pre­pa­res a Stan­dard in line with its Stan­dard-set­ting process.

Step 5: Con­sul­ta­tion phase

The draft Stan­dard is sent to IFRA’s mem­bers and sta­kehol­ders for con­sul­ta­tion. The con­sul­ta­tion period allows mem­bers and sta­kehol­ders to pro­vi­de IFRA with addi­tio­nal data or scien­ti­fic stu­dies that may need to be con­si­de­red in set­ting the final Standard.

Step 6: Publi­ca­tion and implementation

If no addi­tio­nal infor­ma­tion is recei­ved during the con­sul­ta­tion pha­se, the final Stan­dard is published as part of an ​‘Amend­ment to the IFRA Code of Prac­ti­ce’. Follo­wing publi­ca­tion, mem­bers have a spe­ci­fied period to chan­ge inter­nal sys­tems and apply the Standard.

The Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to the IFRA Stan­dards is a docu­ment esta­blished by com­pa­nies crea­ting fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res. It is based on the busi­ness rela­tionship bet­ween the fra­gran­ce sup­plier and its customer.

The Cer­ti­fi­ca­te is only appli­ca­ble for fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res inten­ded to be directly inclu­ded in a finished con­su­mer pro­duct. By using a Cer­ti­fi­ca­te, a fra­gran­ce sup­plier assu­res its cus­to­mer that the pro­duct they supply is in com­plian­ce with the requi­re­ments set by the IFRA Stan­dards for an inten­ded use.

IFRA does not crea­te the cer­ti­fi­ca­tes and the­re is no cer­tif­ying com­pany pro­vi­ding cer­ti­fi­ca­tes on behalf of IFRA.

It is impor­tant to note that the Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity decla­res com­plian­ce with the requi­re­ments expres­sed in the IFRA Stan­dards but does not repla­ce a safety assessment.

The­re is typi­cally no ​‘IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te’ for raw mate­rials. When the­re is an IFRA Stan­dard on a raw mate­rial (e.g. citrus essen­tial oil), you can­not issue a Cer­ti­fi­ca­te as such, but you can com­mu­ni­ca­te to your clients the con­for­mity of the raw mate­rial with the corres­pon­ding IFRA Standard.

Plea­se note that infor­ma­tion on essen­tial oils can also stem from the pre­sen­ce of IFRA res­tric­ted mate­rials in them (see Annex I to the IFRA Stan­dards on the IFRA Stan­dards docu­men­ta­tion page).

Given their inten­ded audien­ce, some of the infor­ma­tion pre­sen­ted can seem con­fu­sing or hard-to-unders­tand for non-experts. We belie­ve it is impor­tant to keep the infor­ma­tion brief and rele­vant for a tech­ni­cal audien­ce – but also to give a wider audien­ce the chan­ce to unders­tand what infor­ma­tion is in a Stan­dard, and why.

Here is a short explai­ner of the key infor­ma­tion con­tai­ned in a typi­cal Standard:

Basic infor­ma­tion: the che­mi­cal name of the fra­gran­ce mate­rial, any synonyms, an illus­tra­tion of the mole­cu­lar struc­tu­re, and the CAS, or Che­mi­cal Abs­tracts Ser­vi­ce, num­ber – a uni­que iden­ti­fier applied to dif­fe­rent che­mi­cal structures.

It is impor­tant to note that ​‘che­mi­cals’ do not only mean labo­ra­tory crea­tions: they inclu­de fra­gran­ce mate­rials from the natu­ral world too.

His­tory: a sum­mary of IFRA’s assess­ments of the fra­gran­ce mate­rial, inclu­ding when the mate­rial is due for further review based on the latest scien­ti­fic understanding.

Recom­men­da­tion: the type of Stan­dard being applied – a Prohi­bi­tion, Res­tric­tion or Specification.

Res­tric­tion limits in the finished pro­duct: maxi­mum per­mit­ted con­cen­tra­tion levels of the subs­tan­ce in dif­fe­rent pro­duct types. The pro­duct types are set out in the IFRA Stan­dards gui­dan­ce documents.

Intrin­sic pro­perty dri­ving risk mana­ge­ment: why we are taking action and issuing a Stan­dard – this is the poten­tial health effect that we are taking action to avoid through a Prohi­bi­tion, Res­tric­tion or Specification.

Nearly 500 years ago, Swiss phy­si­cian and che­mist Para­cel­sus expres­sed the basic prin­ci­ple of toxi­co­logy: ​“All things are poi­son and nothing is without poi­son; only the dose makes a thing not a poison.”

That is why we some­ti­mes apply a Prohi­bi­tion (when evi­den­ce shows that it would be dif­fi­cult to sup­port safe use at any rele­vant level) and some­ti­mes a Res­tric­tion or Spe­ci­fi­ca­tion (when evi­den­ce shows that a mate­rial is safe to use, but within limits).

RIFM safety assess­ment: addi­tio­nal infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded by the Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rials, repor­ting on its stu­dies and findings.

Expert Panel for Fra­gran­ce Safety Ratio­na­le / con­clu­sion: addi­tio­nal expla­na­tions by the inde­pen­dent Fra­gran­ce Safety Panel.

IFRA does not pro­vi­de tuto­rials, but you can find use­ful infor­ma­tion on the follo­wing IFRA public information

• Series of short videos on the IFRA Stan­dards avai­la­ble on the IFRA You­Tu­be chan­nel: https://​www​.you​tu​be​.com/​p​l​a​y​l​i​s​t​?​l​i​s​t​=​P​L​2​S​m​U​J​h​0​r​v​r​4​2​U​4​E​t​y​h​X​_​K​k​d​T​e​e​M​D3xSK.
• Com­prehen­si­ve infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards, cate­go­ries, and the IFRA cer­ti­fi­ca­te of con­for­mity to the IFRA Stan­dard, acces­si­ble on the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Standards
• All current IFRA Stan­dards avai­la­ble on the onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards library.
• Further infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards is avai­la­ble on the onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards docu­men­ta­tion web­pa­ge.

You can also con­tact the IFRA Natio­nal Asso­cia­tion in your country, if the­re is one, for further local assistance.

As des­cri­bed in the noti­fi­ca­tion let­ter of the latest Amend­ment to the IFRA Stan­dards, the imple­men­ta­tion time­li­nes, which apply to the pro­du­cers of fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res, are as follows:

• For IFRA Stan­dards prohi­bi­ting the use of ingredients:

  Date for Stan­dards ente­ri­ng into for­ce for new crea­tions: 2 months after the date of the Amend­ment notification.

  Date for Stan­dards ente­ri­ng into for­ce for exis­ting crea­tions: 13 months after the date of the Amend­ment notification.

• For IFRA Stan­dards res­tric­ting or set­ting spe­ci­fi­ca­tions for the use of ingredients:

  Date for Stan­dards ente­ri­ng into for­ce for new crea­tions: 9 months after the date of the Amend­ment notification.

  Date for Stan­dards ente­ri­ng into for­ce for exis­ting crea­tions: 28 months after the date of the Amend­ment notification.

After the­se dates, the fra­gran­ce hou­ses being IFRA mem­bers are no lon­ger allo­wed to ship non-com­pliant fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res to their customers.

Com­prehen­si­ve infor­ma­tion on the latest Amend­ment to the IFRA Stan­dards is publicly avai­la­ble on this web­si­te in the follo­wing formats:

• Latest IFRA Amend­ment – IFRA Stan­dards over­view (Excel docu­ment)
• The com­ple­te IFRA Stan­dards:
• Index of IFRA Stan­dards – 51^st Amend­ment:
• The IFRA Stan­dard onli­ne library:
• IFRA 51^st Amend­ment – Annex on con­tri­bu­tions from other sour­ces (Excel docu­ment) to be down­load it at

Addi­tio­nal infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards and the 51^st Amend­ment can be found on the ​‘IFRA Stan­dards Docu­men­ta­tion’ webpage:n

The nor­mal cycle of the noti­fi­ca­tion of the Amend­ments of the IFRA Stan­dards is nor­mally every 3 years, unless the­re is any impor­tant chan­ge, like the case of the 50^th Amend­ment, also known as an ​‘off-cycle’ amendment.

An over­view of the IFRA Stan­dards which are part of the latest IFRA Amend­ment can be found in an EXcel for­mat docu­ment entitled ​‘Under the docu­ment titled ​‘IFRA 51^st Amend­ment – IFRA Stan­dards over­view’ (the amend­ment num­ber chan­ges with each new Amend­ment notification)/

IFRA does not offer any cal­cu­la­tor to cal­cu­la­te the amount of essen­tial oil to be used in the dif­fe­rent cate­go­ries has deve­lo­ped?. Ins­tead, you can find a non-exhaus­ti­ve list of exter­nal pro­vi­ders avai­la­ble on the IFRA web­si­te which could help you with the calculation.

Plea­se note that for Natu­ral Com­plex Subs­tan­ces (NCS) like essen­tial oils it is impor­tant the requi­red infor­ma­tion exchan­ge bet­ween sup­plier and user on the pre­sen­ce of IFRA-res­tric­ted mate­rials in the NCS for the cal­cu­la­tion of the maxi­mum use of the NCS in the end con­su­mer. Indi­ca­ti­ve infor­ma­tion is pro­vi­ded in IFRA Annex on con­tri­bu­tions from other sour­ces.

Regar­ding the CAS num­bers and the IFRA Stan­dards library, IFRA puts a lot of efforts in des­cri­bing what is in sco­pe of its Stan­dards. Still, it might be cha­llen­ging to be com­ple­tely inclu­si­ve by lis­ting all avai­la­ble CAS num­bers. This is why on many Stan­dards you will find the wor­ding ​‘The sco­pe of this Stan­dard inclu­des but is not limi­ted to the CAS number(s) indi­ca­ted abo­ve; any other CAS number(s) used to iden­tify this fra­gran­ce ingre­dient should be con­si­de­red in sco­pe as well.’ This aims to address the case of a mate­rial with a res­tric­tion, spe­ci­fi­ca­tion, or prohi­bi­tion, for which more than one CAS num­bers exists. This can be the case when a gene­ric CAS and more spe­ci­fic CAS are used to des­cri­be a mate­rial which may be based on his­tory, pre­fe­ren­ce, or becau­se dif­fe­rent iso­mers are pos­si­ble e.g. due to pre­sen­ce of chi­ral cen­tres and resul­tant ste­reo iso­mers. In the case of res­tric­tions and spe­ci­fi­ca­tions, in all cases, the IFRA Stan­dard limits apply to the total of all rele­vant CAS numbers.

Besi­des, the­re is only stan­dards set for mate­rials whe­re the current expo­su­re is not safe and risk mana­ge­ment is nee­ded. The­re are more mate­rials that have been asses­sed by RIFM ​‘Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rial’. The RIFM safety assess­ment are publicly avai­la­ble at https://​fra​gran​ce​ma​te​rial​sa​fety​re​sour​ce​.else​vier​.com/.

IFRA does not pro­vi­de public edu­ca­tio­nal trai­ning on the IFRA Stan­dards, but it offers a wide ran­ge of public infor­ma­tion resour­ces on the Stan­dards:

• The IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the use of the IFRA Stan­dards, which offers a very com­prehen­si­ve infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards.
• The Annex on con­tri­bu­tions from other sour­ces to the IFRA Stan­dards (also avai­la­ble here), which pro­vi­des a non-exhaus­ti­ve indi­ca­ti­ve list of typi­cal natu­ral pre­sen­ce of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients res­tric­ted by the IFRA Stan­dards. Each Natu­ral Com­plex Subs­tan­ce (NCS) lis­ted in that Annex, ‑like an essen­tial oil‑, is lin­ked to a cons­ti­tuent name (IFRA Stan­dard). In the corres­pon­ding IFRA Stan­dard, it is indi­ca­ted the maxi­mum accep­ta­ble con­cen­tra­tion in the finished pro­duct for the inten­ded use.
• A com­prehen­si­ve over­view file with all IFRA Stan­dards and limits currently avai­la­ble.
• Short expla­na­tory videos on the Stan­dards avai­la­ble on IFRA You­Tu­be channel.

Com­pa­nies have to comply with the national/​local regu­la­tions impac­ting fra­gran­ce ingre­dients and mix­tu­res in pla­ce in the coun­tries they ope­ra­te. This com­plian­ce is also one of the key requi­re­ments of the IFRA Code of Conduct.

The IFRA Code of Prac­ti­ce – of which the IFRA Stan­dards is a major part – is the glo­bal fra­gran­ce industry’s com­mit­ment to pro­mo­ting the safe use of fra­gran­ce for everyone’s enjoyment.

IFRA has esta­blished the IFRA Stan­dards, a self-regu­la­ting volun­tary sys­tem of the industry, based on risk assess­ments carried out by an inde­pen­dent Expert Panel for Fra­gran­ce Safety. The IFRA Stan­dards ban, limit or set cri­te­ria for the use of cer­tain ingre­dients used in final con­su­mer pro­ducts regard­less of whether the subs­tan­ces are added directly or indi­rectly to the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re. It is com­pul­sory to comply with the IFRA Code of Prac­ti­ce and Stan­dards for the IFRA mem­bers, covers around 80 per cent of the glo­bal fra­gran­ce industry by pro­duc­tion volume.

The­re­fo­re, the IFRA Stan­dards sets the limits/​bans of ingre­dients to be used in a safe way.

More infor­ma­tion can be found in the latest Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards , and all the IFRA Stan­dards on the onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards library.

It is impor­tant to note that the IFRA Stan­dards are volun­tary and do not dis­miss com­pa­nies from complying with the national/​local regu­la­tions in pla­ce.

The IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to the IFRA Stan­dards is a docu­ment esta­blished only by the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re manu­fac­tu­rer (not the raw mate­rial sup­pliers) and based on a trus­ting rela­tionship bet­ween the fra­gran­ce sup­plier and its customer.

When the­re is an IFRA Stan­dard on a raw mate­rial (e.g., citrus essen­tial oil), the sup­plier should not issue an IFRA cer­ti­fi­ca­te as such. Ins­tead, sup­pliers should com­mu­ni­ca­te to their clients the con­for­mity of the raw mate­rial with the corres­pon­ding IFRA Stan­dard in a dif­fe­rent format.

It is rele­vant to note that the­re might be impor­tant infor­ma­tion on Natu­ral Com­plex Subs­tan­ces (NCS) that need to be exchan­ged bet­ween sup­plier and user about the pre­sen­ce of IFRA-res­tric­ted mate­rials in the NCS, as it is rele­vant for the cal­cu­la­tion of the maxi­mum use of the NCS. Indi­ca­ted infor­ma­tion is pro­vi­ded in the IFRA Annex on con­tri­bu­tions from other sour­ces (see sec­tion 1.4 of the IFRA-RIFM gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards).

The IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to the IFRA Stan­dards, this is a docu­ment esta­blished only by the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re manu­fac­tu­rer (not by a raw mate­rial sup­pliers) and based on a trus­ting rela­tionship bet­ween the fra­gran­ce sup­plier and its cus­to­mer. By using a Cer­ti­fi­ca­te, a fra­gran­ce sup­plier assu­res its cus­to­mer that the pro­duct they supply is in com­plian­ce with the requi­re­ments set by the IFRA Stan­dards for an inten­ded use.

As sta­ted in the IFRA Code of Prac­ti­ce, it is the res­pon­si­bi­lity of each IFRA mem­ber to ensu­re that the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res or ingre­dients they supply comply with appli­ca­ble laws and are safe for their inten­ded uses.

It is impor­tant to nota that IFRA does not ela­bo­ra­te the Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity and the­re is no cer­tif­ying com­pany pro­vi­ding Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity on behalf of IFRA. Every sup­plier of fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res is res­pon­si­ble for esta­blishing and pro­vi­ding an IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity (a tem­pla­te is avai­la­ble on the IFRA web­si­te).

The Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity can be issued by any­body who is fami­liar with the Code of Prac­ti­ce and the asso­cia­ted Stan­dards. It can the­re­fo­re also be used by non-mem­bers (not man­da­tory) to decla­re that they comply with the IFRA Standards.

The Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity decla­res com­plian­ce with the requi­re­ments expres­sed in the IFRA Stan­dards, but it does not repla­ce a safety assess­ment and does not dis­miss from complying with the national/​regional/​local regu­la­tions in pla­ce.

IFRA has published an infor­ma­ti­ve list of third-party pro­fes­sio­nal ser­vi­ce com­pa­nies that can assist mem­bers and others who requi­re an exter­nal ser­vi­ce pro­vi­der to deve­lop a Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to the IFRA Stan­dards. This list inclu­des com­pa­nies that can attest the con­for­mity of fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res with IFRA Stan­dards. https://​ifra​fra​gran​ce​.org/​s​a​f​e​-​u​s​e​/​i​f​r​a​-​c​e​r​t​i​f​i​cates.

More com­prehen­si­ve gui­dan­ce is avai­la­ble in theIFRA-RIFM gui­dan­ce for the use of the IFRA Stan­dards (

No, IFRA does not ela­bo­ra­te the Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity and the­re is no cer­tif­ying com­pany pro­vi­ding Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity on behalf of IFRA.

Every sup­plier of fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res is res­pon­si­ble for esta­blishing and pro­vi­ding an IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to his clients (a tem­pla­te is avai­la­ble on the IFRA web­si­te).

If you want to find the IFRA Stan­dards cate­gory for a spe­ci­fic end-con­su­mer product/​application, plea­se follow the next steps:

1. check the infor­ma­tion on the IFRA cate­go­ries IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards.
2. if you can­not find the cate­gory of your end-con­su­mer pro­duct in the abo­ve men­tio­ned gui­dan­ce, look in the gui­dan­ce for a one simi­lar product/​application with regard to expo­su­re and habit and practice.
3. if you still can­not find the sui­ta­ble category,you can address to us, ideally by filling as much infor­ma­tion as pos­si­ble in the IFRA-RIFM Cate­go­ri­za­tion form you can find in this web­si­te. Plea­se note that IFRA-RIFM could sha­re our opi­nion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded but the final deci­sion and res­pon­si­bi­lity lies with the producer.

In the case of esta­blishing the IFRA Stan­dard cate­go­ri­za­tion of dual or mul­ti­ple uses pro­ducts, It is neces­sary to always take the follo­wing approach:

1. com­pa­re the limits in both cate­go­ries the pro­duct shall be used in, for all ingre­dients within the fra­gran­ce, and
2. iden­tify the lowest limit for all ingre­dients in both cate­go­ries to dri­ve the ove­rall MAC for the dual use product.

The same prin­ci­ple and rules apply for pro­ducts with more than 2 inten­ded uses (in dif­fe­rent pro­duct cate­go­ries). The­re is an exam­ple for dual use (cate­go­ri­za­tion of mul­ti­ple uses pro­ducts) in the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards.

IFRA does not pro­vi­de sup­port to any com­pany soft­wa­re. The­re is publicly avai­la­ble an ​‘IFRA 51^st Amend­ment – IFRA Stan­dards over­view’ Excel docu­ment on IFRA web­si­te whe­re you can access the data.

The­re are third party pro­fes­sio­nal ser­vi­ce com­pa­nies which offer their soft­wa­re ser­vi­ce rela­ted to the IFRA Stan­dards, but the­re are com­ple­tely inde­pen­dent from IFRA’s activities.

For Natu­ral Subs­tan­ces Com­ple­xes (NCS)/raw mate­rial, you can find typi­cal con­cen­tra­tions of cons­ti­tuents of NCS, which have an IFRA stan­dard, allo­wing you to deri­ve the upper con­cen­tra­tion (%) of essen­tial oils, in the latest ​‘IFRA Amend­ment – Annex on con­tri­bu­tions from other sour­ces’ (see hyper­link). You may use the­se data in the absen­ce of own or sup­plier analy­ti­cal data for your NCS.

More infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards can be found in the latest ​‘IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards and the onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards Library.

The IFRA Stan­dards and rela­ted docu­ments are sub­ject to regu­lar chan­ges as new infor­ma­tion rele­vant to the safety of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients beco­mes avai­la­ble. All the­se chan­ges are part of an IFRA Amend­ment, which is desig­ned accor­ding to an inclu­si­ve pro­ce­du­re and is sub­ject to a broad con­sul­ta­tion of all rele­vant sta­kehol­ders befo­re its Notification.

The com­plian­ce time­li­nes that will be applied to the Stan­dards in the latest Amend­ment are detai­led in the res­pec­ti­ve Noti­fi­ca­tion Letter.

The time­li­nes pro­vi­ded in the Stan­dards refer to mix­tu­res of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients (for­mu­las) and not to finished con­su­mer product(s). The date for com­plian­ce with the IFRA Amend­ments corres­ponds to the date of pla­ce­ment of fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res on the mar­ket, mea­ning for them to lea­ve a fra­gran­ce hou­se. From a docu­men­ta­tion point of view this should be con­si­de­red to be the ear­liest of the follo­wing dates: the date of dis­patch or the date of invoice.

The­re might be cir­cums­tan­ces whe­re scien­ti­fic fin­dings do not allow the com­ple­tion of a RIFM SA and the Panel will decla­re that no safe use can be deter­mi­ned for a given fra­gran­ce ingre­dient. In such a case, a sum­mary of the rele­vant toxi­co­lo­gi­cal data is pro­vi­ded by the Panel to IFRA and the RMTF to con­clu­de on the risk mana­ge­ment mea­su­res requi­red and their timing.
In case the resul­ting Stan­dard can­not be inte­gra­ted timely in a regu­larly sche­du­led ​‘Nor­mal cycle’ Amend­ment, IFRA has the option of taking imme­dia­te risk mana­ge­ment mea­su­res by issuing a so-called ​‘off-cycle’ Amendment.

You can find com­prehen­si­ve infor­ma­tion about the IFRA Stan­dards and the Amend­ments in the latest ​‘IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the IFRA Standards.’

The RIFM paper ​”Crite­ria for the Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rials, Inc. (RIFM) Safety Eva­lua­tion Pro­cess for Fra­gran­ce Ingre­dients” offers all end-points con­si­de­red on the safety assess­ments con­duc­ted by RIFM, which are the initial basis for the IFRA Stan­dards. In case a res­pi­ra­tory sen­si­ti­zer would be iden­ti­fied from the risk mana­ge­ment con­si­de­ra­tion at IFRA, it would actually be banned.

It is impor­tant to note that the IFRA Stan­dards are a volun­tary industry initia­ti­ve and com­pa­nies must still comply with national/​local regu­la­tions in place.

Apart of the ​‘fra­gran­ce aller­gens’ labe­lling regu­la­tion (Com­mis­sion Regu­la­tion (EU) 2023⁄1545 of 26 July
2023 amen­ding Regu­la­tion (EC) No ¹²²³⁄₂₀₀₉ of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil as regards labe­lling of fra­gran­ce aller­gens in cos­me­tic pro­ducts), the IFRA cate­go­ries for der­mal sen­si­ti­za­tion and sys­te­mic toxi­city end­points were revi­sed and har­mo­ni­zed are part of the 49^th Amend­ment based on QRA2.

The new Stan­dards for der­mal sen­si­ti­za­tion as of the 49^th Amend­ment are based on this new assess­ment metho­do­logy, known as Quan­ti­ta­ti­ve Risk Assess­ment (QRA2), which has been deve­lo­ped through the Inter­na­tio­nal Dia­lo­gue on the Eva­lua­tion of Aller­gens (IDEA).

IDEA pro­ject a mul­ti-sta­kehol­der pro­cess invol­ving der­ma­to­lo­gists, aca­de­mics, the industry and other sta­kehol­ders. The new Stan­dards look at aggre­ga­te expo­su­re of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients via dif­fe­rent con­su­mer pro­ducts, using a data­ba­se of real-life pro­duct use and habits that feeds into a sta­tis­ti­cal model, hel­ping us to unders­tand how peo­ple use fra­gran­ce pro­ducts in every­day life and to set rules that ensu­re they can con­ti­nue to use them safely.

For more details on the new assess­ment metho­do­logy, you can con­sult the QRA2 report (http://​www​.idea​pro​ject​.info/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​M​o​d​u​l​e​s​/​D​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/​q​r​a​2​-​d​o​s​s​i​e​r​-​final – september2016.pdf).

The latest infor­ma­tion on the IFRA cate­go­ries and IFRA Stan­dards is avai­la­ble in the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Standards.

All iso­mers in the IFRA Stan­dard are cove­red in its tota­lity. If indi­vi­dual iso­mers would be trea­ted sepa­ra­tely, then they would have iso­mer spe­ci­fic Stan­dards.

As explai­ned in the latest IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards, the defi­ni­tions of ​‘new crea­tions’ and ​‘exis­ting crea­tions’ for the Amend­ment time­li­ne com­plian­ces are:

“New crea­tions” are defi­ned as any fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re for which the brief1 has been issued after the com­ple­tion of the infor­ma­tion exchan­ge across the supply chain period (i.e., upda­te of IT sys­tems,
bila­te­ral infor­ma­tion exchan­ge bet­ween fra­gran­ce hou­ses and infor­ma­tion exchan­ge bet­ween fra­gran­ce hou­ses and cus­to­mers as a total of 7 months ). In prac­ti­ce, this means that briefs recei­ved after the Noti­fi­ca­tion can only be veri­fied for com­plian­ce with the requi­re­ments of the new Amend­ment once com­pa­nies are fully operational.

“Exis­ting crea­tions” are tho­se fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res that have already been pla­ced on the mar­ket in con­su­mer product(s) or are already in the deve­lop­ment pha­se at the time the com­ple­tion of infor­ma­tion exchan­ge comes to its end. This includes:

• fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res for which a brief has been recei­ved prior to the date of the Noti­fi­ca­tion of the Amendment;
• fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res for which the brief has been recei­ved during the period of infor­ma­tion exchan­ge across the supply chain;
• fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res that are already in deve­lop­ment by the fra­gran­ce manu­fac­tu­rer or even in the hands of the con­su­mer pro­duct manufacturer.

The aller­gen decla­ra­tion rela­tes to the EU Cos­me­tic Regu­la­tion (EU) ²⁰²³⁄₁₅₄₅ of 26 July 2023, not to the IFRA Stan­dards (do not con­fu­se that aller­gen decla­ra­tion with the IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to the IFRA Standards).

You can find more prac­ti­cal infor­ma­tion rela­ted to the EU aller­gen decla­ra­tion in the Cos­me­tics Europe’s gui­dan­ce on the ​‘fra­gran­ce aller­gens’ requi­re­ments.

IFRA Stan­dards that impo­se a quan­ti­ta­ti­ve limit on the use of fra­gran­ce mate­rials are expres­sed as an upper con­cen­tra­tion of fra­gran­ce mate­rial in the finished con­su­mer pro­duct, not the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re. For exam­ple, the limit is for the com­ple­te pro­duct in the bottle, inclu­ding everything in.

The IFRA Stan­dards are not desig­ned, but can inform on the sin­gle use of a fra­gran­ce ingredients.

More infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards can be found in the latest​‘IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards and the onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards Library.

In all cases, the final deci­sion and res­pon­si­bi­lity always lies with the end con­su­mer pro­duct manufacturer.

We can­not advi­ce you on the cate­gory – we can only sha­re with you our pers­pec­ti­ve by dra­wing a con­clu­sion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded and the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards . Plea­se always con­sult this docu­ment first, as it con­tains a lot of use­ful information.

If the beard care pro­duct is for lea­ve-on appli­ca­tion, it seems that IFRA cate­gory 5B would be a sui­ta­ble option.

It is impor­tant to note that this IFRA opi­nion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded but the final deci­sion and res­pon­si­bi­lity always lies with the pro­du­cer.

Should you refer to another bear care rela­ted appli­ca­tion, you might also want to con­si­der to try to fill in an RIFM-IFRA form that helps the expert group to cate­go­ri­ze the pro­duct (link also indi­ca­ted in the guidance).

We can­not advi­ce you on the cate­gory – we can only sha­re with you our pers­pec­ti­ve by dra­wing a con­clu­sion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded and the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards . Plea­se always con­sult this docu­ment first, as it con­tains a lot of use­ful information.

It seems that IFRA cate­gory 9 would be a sui­ta­ble option for bath bombs (simi­lar to bath salt).

It is impor­tant to note that this IFRA opi­nion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded but the final deci­sion and res­pon­si­bi­lity always lies with the pro­du­cer.

Should you refer to another bear care rela­ted appli­ca­tion, you might also want to con­si­der to try to fill in an RIFM-IFRA form that helps the expert group to cate­go­ri­ze the pro­duct (link also indi­ca­ted in the guidance).

Den­tal floss is not in the sco­pe of the RIFM safety Assess­ment and the­re­fo­re not in the IFRA Stan­dards sco­pe either.
Plea­se note that you may need to comply with the fla­vour regu­la­tion in pla­ce. The Euro­pean Fla­vor Asso­cia­tion-EFFA (info@​effa.​eu) may help you on that, if needed.

We can­not advi­ce you on the cate­gory – we can only sha­re with you our pers­pec­ti­ve by dra­wing a con­clu­sion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded and the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards . Plea­se always con­sult this docu­ment first, as it con­tains a lot of use­ful information.

It seems that IFRA cate­gory 12 would be a sui­ta­ble option for for a pillow spray.

It is impor­tant to note that this IFRA opi­nion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded but the final deci­sion and res­pon­si­bi­lity always lies with the producer.

Should you refer to another bear care rela­ted appli­ca­tion, you might also want to con­si­der to try to fill in an RIFM-IFRA form that helps the expert group to cate­go­ri­ze the pro­duct (link also indi­ca­ted in the guidance).

You can find com­prehen­si­ve infor­ma­tion about the IFRA cate­go­ries and tables of cate­go­ries per pro­duct appli­ca­tion in the ​‘IFRA-RIFM gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Standards’.

Addi­tio­nally, IFRA also offers a free onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards Library whe­re all the current IFRA Stan­dards can be found and downloaded.

If the benzyl alcohol is used as a pre­ser­va­ti­ve in a cos­me­tic pro­duct and the regu­la­tion per­mits higher con­cen­tra­tion uses that tho­se recom­men­ded in the IFRA Stan­dard, then the regu­la­tion can be followed.

Plea­se note that con­cen­tra­tion of the IFRA Stan­dard of Benzyl alcohol are deri­ved for use as fra­gran­ce ingre­dient.

Fra­gran­ce manu­fac­tu­rers are requi­red to comply with legally bin­ding regu­la­tions in for­ce within the coun­tries whe­re they ope­ra­te and mar­ket their products.

The IFRA Stan­dards is a volun­tary risk mana­ge­ment sys­tem for the safe use of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients but man­da­tory for IFRA mem­bers, as part of the IFRA Code of Practice.

In some ins­tan­ces, IFRA Stan­dards may dif­fer from legal regu­la­tory risk mana­ge­ment mea­su­res (i.e. bans or res­tric­tions) .This is the case for Butylphenyl Methyl­pro­pio­nal (BMHCA,CAS n° 80−54−6), also known com­mer­cially as Lilial, which has been ban­ned in cos­me­tic pro­ducts (both exis­ting and new) in the Euro­pean Union as of March 2022.

The use of BMH­CA remains per­mit­ted in mar­kets outsi­de the EU (sub­ject to local regu­la­tions, if any) but IFRA mem­bers must comply with the con­cer­ned Standard.

The Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rials (RIFM) has con­duc­ted a com­prehen­si­ve aggre­ga­te expo­su­re risk assess­ment. This assess­ment sup­ports the con­ti­nued safe use of p‑BMHCA in both cos­me­tic and non-cos­me­tic appli­ca­tions at the con­cen­tra­tions currently in use

No, IFRA can­not pro­vi­de this infor­ma­tion. We are an orga­ni­za­tion with scien­ti­fic, tech­ni­cal and regu­la­tory goals, and so can­not pro­vi­de busi­ness-rela­ted infor­ma­tion or advice.

IFRA does not have no an spe­ci­fic cate­gory for chil­dren pro­ducts other than the spe­ci­fic con­si­de­ra­tion for toys, as further outli­ned below. Other­wi­se the same rules than for adults apply.

The situa­tion is dif­fe­rent for baby pro­ducts, due to spe­ci­fic con­si­de­ra­tions on sys­te­mic toxi­city. We recently have been asked about baby per­fu­me, which in the end we did not cate­go­ri­ze and not inclu­de in the gui­dan­ce. Whi­le our experts are not con­cer­ned with the QRA inter-indi­vi­dual SAF of 10 (it should ade­qua­tely cover inter-indi­vi­dual varia­bi­lity in the gene­ral popu­la­tion for induc­tion of sen­si­ti­za­tion and is also pro­tec­ti­ve for infants and chil­dren, but may not be ade­qua­te to pro­tect ​‘at risk’ groups yet to be fully cha­rac­te­ri­zed (Bas­ket­ter and Saf­ford, 2016; Fel­ter et al., 2018)), we have no relia­ble habits and prac­ti­ces data and it is unli­kely that we will obtain the­se type of data. The pro­duct can be spra­yed anywhe­re and much more than inten­ded or sug­ges­ted. The­re is also the con­si­de­ra­tion that the­re may be oral expo­su­re becau­se of the baby put­ting their hands/​feet in their mouth. For the­se reasons, it is a pro­duct type that we can­not ade­qua­tely sup­port and hen­ce will not cate­go­ri­ze it. This remains full res­pon­si­bi­lity of the producer.

In this con­text, plea­se note that IFRA prohi­bits the use of fra­gran­ce mate­rials and mix­tu­res in toys or other children’s pro­ducts whe­re the­re is the like­lihood of mouth con­tact for chil­dren less than 3 years of age. IFRA res­tricts to Cate­gory 1 the use of fra­gran­ce mate­rials and mix­tu­res in toys or other children’s pro­ducts whe­re the­re is no like­lihood of mouth con­tact for chil­dren older than 3 years. Should expo­su­re data beco­me avai­la­ble, the­se pro­duct types may be recategorized.

More detai­led infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards cate­go­ries and sub­ca­te­go­ries can be found in the IFRA ‑RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the use of the IFRA Standards

A list of IFRA mem­bers can be found on the Mem­bership web­pa­ge. The­se inclu­de the FRA’s Regu­lar and Sup­por­ting members.

Plea­se con­tact the rele­vant IFRA Natio­nal Asso­cia­tion for infor­ma­tion on fra­gran­ce hou­ses in a par­ti­cu­lar country which are mem­ber of that Natio­nal Association.

Mem­bers of IFRA Natio­nal Asso­cia­tions can request a let­ter to con­firm their affi­lia­tion to IFRA and their adhe­ren­ce to the IFRA Code of Prac­ti­ce and the IFRA Stan­dards. They can send their request via the con­tact form on this website.

IFRA can­not pro­vi­de such let­ter to non-IFRA members.

The­re are seve­ral offi­cial cour­ses for per­fu­mery in the world and con­se­quently it can be a dif­fi­cult industry to break into it so we sug­gest to do an own onli­ne search.

Some exam­ples are:

• Ins­ti­tu­te Supé­rieur Inter­na­tio­nal du Par­fum de la Cos­mé­ti­que et de l’Aromatique Ali­men­tai­re (ISIP­CA), loca­ted in Ver­sai­lles, Fran­ce. This most renow­ned inde­pen­dent school of per­fu­mery ins­ti­tu­te runs a ran­ge of cour­ses rela­ted to the fra­gran­ce industry from per­fu­mery to eva­lua­tion and marketing.
• Gras­se Ins­ti­tu­te of Per­fu­mery (GIP), foun­ded by the IFRA Natio­nal Asso­cia­tion in Fran­ce, Pro­da­rom. GIP is a pres­ti­gious school loca­ted in Gras­se, France.
• Some per­fu­mery schools are run pri­va­tely by some of the lar­ge fra­gran­ce hou­ses and are used to train futu­re employees.
• Inter­na­tio­nal Cen­tre for Aro­ma Tra­de Stu­dies (ICATS) is an orga­ni­za­tion that exists to pro­vi­de fle­xi­ble qua­lity lear­ning to pro­fes­sio­nals and aspi­ring tho­se pro­fes­sio­nals in the Aro­ma Tra­des, Per­fu­mery and Fla­vor indus­tries. ICATS offers the IFEAT Gra­dua­te Diplo­ma or Cer­ti­fi­ca­te accre­di­ted by the Inter­na­tio­nal Fede­ra­tion of Essen­tial Oils and Aro­ma Tra­des (IFEAT).

IFRA does not pro­vi­de per­fu­mery courses.

The IFRA Trans­pa­rency List is the​‘perfumer’s palet­te’ – an over­view of the ingre­dients used to crea­te fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res emplo­yed by con­su­mer goods com­pa­nies in per­so­nal care pro­ducts, home care pro­ducts and fine fra­gran­ce worldwide.

The IFRA Trans­pa­rency List is based on repor­ting anony­mous and con­fi­den­tially pro­vi­ded by IFRA Mem­bers in the ​‘Volu­me of Use Sur­vey’, which is com­pi­led every five years.

For the prin­ci­pal name of the ingre­dients, the RIFM Prin­ci­pal name is the most ​“com­monly known by” synonym though they may also be some che­mi­cal or INCI names.

The current List inclu­des a new, more refi­ned nomen­cla­tu­re sys­tem for natu­ral pro­ducts. The­se pro­ducts can have various geo­graphi­cal ori­gins, be extrac­ted via dif­fe­rent pro­ces­ses, and come from dif­fe­rent parts of the plant.

We the­re­fo­re employ a sys­tem that pro­vi­des grea­ter detail and trans­pa­rency than the Che­mi­cal Abs­tracts Ser­vi­ce (CAS) num­ber sys­tem.

As sta­ted by the IFRA NCS task­for­ce docu­ment date 23 January 2025, the­re is a com­mon per­cep­tion that ​“natu­ral” holds par­ti­cu­lar sig­ni­fi­can­ce, promp­ting the fra­gran­ce industry to address the need for a clear defi­ni­tion of what cons­ti­tu­tes a natu­ral fra­gran­ce ingredient.

In the dic­tio­nary, the term ​“natu­ral” is defi­ned as exis­ting in or deri­ved by natu­re. It is impor­tant to stress that within the fra­gran­ce industry, the­re is no offi­cial defi­ni­tion and that ​“natu­ral” can be defi­ned in dif­fe­rent ways depen­ding, for ins­tan­ce, upon the geo­graphi­cal area. Each con­su­mer pro­duct manu­fac­tu­rer is ulti­ma­tely res­pon­si­ble for the way in which the con­su­mer pro­duct is des­cri­bed or promoted.

In cases whe­re the manu­fac­tu­rer does not give clear ins­truc­tions and gui­de­li­nes to its fra­gran­ce sup­plier, the fra­gran­ce sup­plier can use the follo­wing defi­ni­tion and posi­tions sup­por­ted by the Inter­na­tio­nal Fra­gran­ce Asso­cia­tion (IFRA):

1. . Only aro­ma­tic raw mate­rials mat­ching with the terms and defi­ni­tions laid down in the ISO 92351 can be used in fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res clai­med as ​“natu­ral”. Note: this can inclu­de raw mate­rials further sub-cate­go­ri­zed (e.g., 2.1.2 Abso­lu­te x‑less) and sup­ple­men­tary cate­go­ries added based on expert review (e.g., 2.54 Sol­vent extrac­tion of dis­ti­lla­tion water). The com­ple­te list of terms is avai­la­ble on the IFRA website.
2. Exam­ples of raw mate­rials that can­not be used in fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res clai­med as ​“natu­ral” are synthe­tic mole­cu­les, recons­ti­tu­ted essen­tial oils invol­ving the addi­tion of synthe­tic mole­cu­les and che­mi­cally modi­fied natu­ral raw mate­rials (e.g., acety­la­ted veti­ver oil).
3. The pro­duc­tion method of cer­tain natu­ral ingre­dients and the sta­bi­lity of such ingre­dients may requi­re the addi­tion of synthe­tic ingre­dients (e.g., sol­vents). This is further defi­ned by IFRA, so that the con­su­mer pro­duct manu­fac­tu­rer may deter­mi­ne if the natu­ral­ness cri­te­ria are met:
   1. • Small quan­ti­ties of anti­oxi­dants or pre­ser­va­ti­ves may be added to pro­tect aro­ma­tic natu­ral raw mate­rials (as defi­ned in the ISO 9235)
      from degra­da­tion.
   2. • In cases whe­re synthe­tic sol­vents are used for pro­duc­tion pro­cess reasons, they should be remo­ved to the grea­test pos­si­ble extent per GMP requirements
   3. • In cases whe­re dilu­tion sol­vents are used in the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re clai­med as ​“natu­ral”, it is requi­red to use dilu­tion sol­vents coming exclu­si­vely from bio­lo­gi­cal sour­ces (bio-sour­ced ingre­dients and not petro­che­mi­cal sources).

IFRA does not issue Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity for the use of the IFRA Stan­dards or any other form of cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, and no cer­tif­ying com­pany is autho­ri­zed to pro­vi­de Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity on behalf of IFRA. The­re­fo­re, it is unautho­ri­zed to make any sta­te­ments regar­ding IFRA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion that could be mis­lea­ding. Further­mo­re, the IFRA Bylaws and our bran­ding gui­de­li­nes clearly sta­te that ​“no com­pany may use the IFRA logo without prior writ­ten authorization”.

In addi­tion, the IFRA Bylaws and IFRA brand gui­de­li­nes prohi­bit the use of the logo in any way that implies IFRA cer­ti­fies indi­vi­dual pro­ducts, raw mate­rials, or for­mu­la­tions. IFRA does not cer­tify pro­ducts or grant licen­ses for pro­mo­tio­nal use of its name or logo. Any such impli­ca­tion is mis­lea­ding to con­su­mers and the mar­ket­pla­ce”.

As explai­ned in the Cos­me­tics Euro­pe’s ​‘Gui­de­li­nes on the ​‘Fra­gran­ce Aller­gens Requi­re­ments’, the new ​‘fra­gran­ce aller­gens’ labe­lling regu­la­tion (Com­mis­sion Regu­la­tion (EU) ²⁰²³⁄₁₅₄₅ of 26 July
2023 amen­ding Regu­la­tion (EC) No ¹²²³⁄₂₀₀₉ of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil as regards labe­lling of fra­gran­ce aller­gens in cos­me­tic pro­ducts), which expands the list to 80+ aller­gens, aims to pro­tect aller­gic indi­vi­duals through pro­vi­ding them labe­lling infor­ma­tion that allows them to make a pro­per choi­ce when buying products.

This Com­mis­sion Regu­la­tion sets out new obli­ga­tions for the labe­lling of an exten­ded list of so called ​‘fra­gran­ce aller­gens’ in addi­tion to the one set by direc­ti­ve 2003/15/CE.

On the Regu­la­tion imple­men­ta­tion, the Regu­la­tion ente­red into for­ce on 16 August 202. The­re is a transition period for new res­tric­tions foreseen:

• until 31 July 2026 for pla­cing pro­ducts on the market,
• until 31 July 2028 for with­dra­wal of pro­ducts from the market.

Labe­lling is man­da­tory if the subs­tan­ce is pre­sent in the cos­me­tic pro­duct abo­ve spe­ci­fic threshold con­cen­tra­tions, which are dif­fe­rent for lea­ve-on and rin­se-off pro­ducts.

The abo­ve-men­tio­ned Cos­me­tics Euro­pe gui­dan­ce docu­ment aims to help com­pa­nies to unders­tand and correctly inter­pret the ​‘fra­gran­ce aller­gens’ labe­lling requi­re­ments and adapt its prac­ti­ces to ensu­re con­ti­nued compliance.

Labe­ling or finished pro­ducts con­tai­ning fra­gran­ce oil on drums must comply with appli­ca­ble natio­nal and regio­nal regu­la­tions, which may inclu­de ele­ments of the Glo­bally Har­mo­ni­zed Sys­tem of Clas­si­fi­ca­tion and Labe­lling of Che­mi­cals (GHS).

To request a copy of the IFRA-IOFI Labe­lling Manual on GHS, plea­se sub­mit an enquiry via our con­tact form.

Given the near-extin­ction sta­tus of some musk deer popu­la­tions and increa­sing regu­la­tory pro­tec­tion under CITES (the Con­ven­tion on Inter­na­tio­nal Tra­de in Endan­ge­red Spe­cies of Wild Fau­na and Flo­ra), IFRA reques­ted that all fra­gran­ce manu­fac­tu­rers cea­se the use of natu­ral musk sin­ce 31 Octo­ber 2000, as sta­ted in IFRA’s Infor­ma­tion Let­ter nr 608.

Currently, all spe­cies of musk deer are lis­ted in CITES Appen­dix I or Appen­dix II. For tho­se musk deer popu­la­tions lis­ted under in CITES Appen­dix I, the inter­na­tio­nal tra­de in the­se spe­ci­mens is prohi­bi­ted. For all other musk deer popu­la­tions lis­ted under Appen­dix II, the inter­na­tio­nal tra­de of tho­se spe­ci­mens are allo­wed but strictly monitored.

The IFRA Board res­ta­ted its com­mit­ment under the Infor­ma­tion Let­ter 608:
- to the pro­tec­tion of ani­mals and par­ti­cu­larly of endan­ge­red spe­cies;
- to the use of mate­rials, the collec­tion of which does not invol­ve cruelty to ani­mals and does not put at risk endan­ge­red species.